This disclosure relates generally to a speed sensor, and more specifically to determining the speed of a moving object, such as a pill.
There are many occasions when the speed of an object is desired. For instance, a pitcher in baseball may want to know how fast he is throwing a baseball or a police officer may want to know the speed of a car passing though a freeway. Different applications impose different requirements of the speed sensor. For instance a speed sensor used by a baseball pitcher may allow for a relatively long lag time to output the speed of the baseball, whereas a police officer may benefit by using a speed sensor with a shorter lag time.
Certain applications in which the exact location of the object passing by is not known ahead of time may benefit from having a speed sensor with faster reading times. For example, speed sensors may also be used as part of an automated medication and dosage system, in which pills must be identified and confirmed as the intended pill for a patient. In an example system, a pill to be identified passes through a chute for imaging. A particular challenge of automated identification of pills is to determine when the pill will be in the field of view of a camera used for capturing images of the pills to be identified. The lag time of a speed sensor between object detection and speed determination affects the required distance between the speed sensor and the camera, as well as the accuracy of predictions of when the pill will be within the field of view. Therefore the automated medication and dosage system may benefit from faster sensors since the determination of the speed and position of the pill is performed before the pill crosses the field of view of the camera.